Search Constraints
You searched for:
Topic
Vietnam War, 1961-1975--Personal narratives, American
Remove constraint Topic: Vietnam War, 1961-1975--Personal narratives, American
Topic
Other veterans & civilians--Personal narratives, American
Remove constraint Topic: Other veterans & civilians--Personal narratives, American
Number of results to display per page
Search Results
- Notes:
- Hung Q Vu was born in Nam Dinh, Vietnam in 1952. In 1954 his family moved to Bien Hoa, Vietnam because they were Catholic and faced oppression from the Communists. He studied at the Saigon University of Law and eventually joined the Vietnamese Air Force in 1972. After passing an English test in Basic Training, Vu was sent to Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas and Shepherd Air Force Base for further pilot training. Vu trained on the T-41 and T-37. He met back up with his squad at Phan Rang Air Base in Vietnam in late 1974. Vu was captured and sent to a labor camp. Eventually Vu and his wife were able, after many attempts, to escape to the United States under a program started by Ronald Reagan in 1989.
- Date Created:
- 2010-06-04T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Grand Valley State University. University Libraries
- Collection:
- Veterans History Project (U.S.)
- Notes:
- Madeline McGregor was born in 1946 in South Bend Indiana. She married her husband Mike McGregor in 1965, at age 19, and her husband was drafted the next year. Around the same time she became pregnant, and had her son Mike Jr shortly before her husband left for Vietnam. While her husband was training but before her son was born Madeline sold typewriters at a store. After he served his two years Mike returned and they had another child named Melissa.
- Date Created:
- 2014-10-09T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Grand Valley State University. University Libraries
- Collection:
- Veterans History Project (U.S.)
- Notes:
- This interview session recaps the first part of Bassett's tour in Vietnam, and then covers the second half, when he was a brigade-level staff officer in the 9th Division. Bassett supervised long range reconnaissance patrols, organized and ran a provisional company working with experimental ground radar, and dealt with an unstable commander. He would remain the Army until 1997, working both with the Rangers and in intelligence work. He spent a total of eight years in Germany, including the period immediately before the fall of the Berlin Wall, and also went to Saudi Arabia and Iraq at the time of the Gulf War, and also worked at the Pentagon. After retiring for medical reasons, he continued to work as a civilian contractor for the military, helping the Colombian army and national police with counterinsurgency training and later working with civilian contractors sent to the Middle East at the time of the invasion of Iraq.
- Date Created:
- 2011-04-26T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Grand Valley State University. University Libraries
- Collection:
- Veterans History Project (U.S.)
- Notes:
- Rick Sturim was born in Brooklyn, New York on October 21, 1942. He attended college at the Newark College of Engineering and joined the Air Force Reserve Officers' Training Corps. He graduated in 1964 and was commissioned in that same year as a 2nd lieutenant. He was trained as an Aircraft Maintenance Officer at Chanute Air Force Base, Illinois from December 1964 through June 1965. In August 1965 he was assigned to Ramey Air Force Base, Puerto Rico where he helped maintain the nuclear weapon-armed B-52 bombers at that base. In August 1968 he was assigned to Kincheloe Air Force Base in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and stayed there until August 1969 when he was discharged from the Air Force.
- Date Created:
- 2015-07-09T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Grand Valley State University. University Libraries
- Collection:
- Veterans History Project (U.S.)
- Notes:
- Che was born in Hanoi, Vietnam in 1940. After graduating from high school, he joined the army so that he could serve his country. He was sent to officer training school and graduated as a lieutenant. He served in the army from 1962 – 1966. After the Tet Offensive in 1968, Che decided to rejoin the army. He was sent to many towns and villages surrounding Saigon, and later fought in the battle of An Xuan Loc as a battalion commander. After the war ended, Che spent five years in a prison camp for his military involvement. He moved with his family to the United States in 1992 and settled in Detroit, Michigan.
- Date Created:
- 2010-07-03T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Grand Valley State University. University Libraries
- Collection:
- Veterans History Project (U.S.)
- Notes:
- Freddie Gilbert is a Vietnam War veteran born in1949 in Vermont and was raised in Prairieville, Maryland. In 1969 he was drafted for the Vietnam War and was attached to D Company in 2nd and 506th of the 101st Airborne. His unit was heavily engaged in the fighting around Firebase Ripcord in 1970. After the war he enlisted in the Army and served as a trainer and made that his career until he retired from service on June 1st 1989. Afterwards he took a job in the civilian security sector with the Pinkerton Guard Business and is still serving with them.
- Date Created:
- 2013-10-10T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Grand Valley State University. University Libraries
- Collection:
- Veterans History Project (U.S.)
- Notes:
- Carolyn Greene was born in Jackson, Mississippi on June 23, 1948. Her father was in the US Air Force and she grew up where he was stationed at Kessler Air Force Base in Mississippi. When Carolyn was a teenager she was active in the Civil Rights Movement, working with the Freedom Riders, NAACP, and even got to meet Martin Luther King. She enlisted in the Army in 1972 after graduating from college, and went through basic training in Fort Jackson in South Carolina. She then went to Fort Rucker in Alabama where she took AIT classes and spent the rest of her service working in an office. In the interview, she notes continuing problems with racism in Alabama and some of the problems that returning veterans from Vietnam brought with them
- Date Created:
- 2006-08-21T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Grand Valley State University. University Libraries
- Collection:
- Veterans History Project (U.S.)
- Notes:
- Herman Keizer was born in Chicago on May 21, 1938. He was drafted into the Army in 1962 and served as a Chaplain's Assistant at Fort Belvoir, Virginia until 1964. He studied at Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and also attended the Calvin Theological Seminary in 1968. He was commissioned as a chaplain in the Army and was deployed to Vietnam. He was assigned to the 1st Battalion of the 26th Infantry Regiment of the 1st Infantry Division and operated out of Lai Khe. He went into Cambodia in the spring of 1970, and due to actions there received a Bronze Star for valor. He joined the 4th Infantry Division in An Khe where he developed an amnesty program for soldiers suffering from drug addictions. While at An Khe, he broke both of his arms in a helicopter crash. He recovered at Camp Zama, Japan, and at Great Lakes Naval Hospital in Chicago. He served as the hospital chaplain at Fort Carson, Colorado, from 1971 to 1972 where he wrote an essay on Selective Conscientious Objection and wrote the basis for the Army's drug and alcohol program. He also worked on a case dealing with sexual harassment in the Army. He served at the State Department and helped with evacuation of personnel during the September 11th Attacks. After he retired from the Army he has stayed active with support groups for veterans, and helped with the Truth Commission on Conscience in War, and has also written on Moral Injury in War.
- Date Created:
- 2015-01-16T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Grand Valley State University. University Libraries
- Collection:
- Veterans History Project (U.S.)
- Notes:
- Dennis Bassett was born in 1942 in Grand Rapids, Michigan. After graduating from high school in 1960, Bassett decided he wanted a different direction for his life, so he enlisted in the Army. After completing both his basic and advanced training at Fort Knox in Kentucky, Bassett deployed to Korea, where he worked at a medical depot. Once he finished his tour in Korea, Bassett returned to the United States and worked with a Ranger training company in Georgia before receiving his discharge. Following his discharge, Bassett went through four years of college, with the final two years in ROTC and as a result of his time in the ROTC, after his graduation, received a Regular Army commission. After receiving the commission, Bassett went back through Ranger school and deployed to Vietnam, where he served with the 9th Infantry Division in the Mekong Delta region as part of the Riverine Force, and served as a platoon leader in the 3/60 Infantry for the first half of his tour. (see Part 2 for the rest of the story)
- Date Created:
- 2011-04-26T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Grand Valley State University. University Libraries
- Collection:
- Veterans History Project (U.S.)
- Notes:
- Joyce Washburn was born in October 1949 in Grand Rapids, Michigan. She enlisted in the Navy Reserves in May 1968 and received basic training at U.S. Naval Training Center at Bainbridge, Maryland in August 1968. She returned to college then went to Naval Hospital Corps School at Great Lakes Naval Station, Illinois where she learned how to be a corpsman. She stayed in the Navy Reserves for twenty six years working at the hospitals at Great Lakes Naval Station, San Diego, and Pensacola. She also got to work at Bethesda Naval Hospital and U.S. Navy Bureau of Medicine and Surgery in Washington D.C. During her time in the Navy Reserves she helped with domestic abuse programs, drug abuse programs, and psychological trauma programs. After her service she helped a fellow veteran, Dr. Edward Byrd, with the creation of a memorial for her fiance, Dennis Lobbezoo, who was killed in Vietnam in June 1968.
- Date Created:
- 2015-02-19T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Grand Valley State University. University Libraries
- Collection:
- Veterans History Project (U.S.)
- Notes:
- Luc Nguyen's father escaped from North Vietnam when he was a young man and following his service in the South Vietnamese Army (ARVN), became a farmer. Nguyen himself grew up on the farms where his father worked before attending the University of Saigon. Having witnessed things during the 1968 Tet Offensive, Nguyen decided to enlist and spent several years at the National Military Academy. Once he completed his time at the academy, Nguyen became a platoon leader in a scout company before taking command of his own infantry company. Eventually, during the North Vietnamese Army's final offensive, Nguyen received wounds from a rocket explosion and while he was in the hospital, the war ended. After the war, Nguyen spent several years in re-education camps before his release. Following his release, Nguyen and his family spent several years in Vietnam before immigrating to the United States in 1993.
- Date Created:
- 2010-01-22T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Grand Valley State University. University Libraries
- Collection:
- Veterans History Project (U.S.)
- Notes:
- In July 1969, Ron Kloet returned to Vietnam for a third tour of duty. During this tour, he served as part of the intelligence section for the 1st Air Cavalry Division in the Phuoc Long Province. While with the 1st Air Cav., Kloet took part in operations within neighboring Cambodia. Once his tour with the Air Cav. ended, Kloet's original orders called for him to go to a career course at Fort Bragg. However, recalling previous time spent at Fort Bragg, Kloet instead requested going back to Vietnam for a fourth tour, which he received. Therefore, after receiving training in another career course and in a MASA (Military Assistance Security Advisory) course, Kloet deployed to Vietnam for a fourth time. During the fourth tour, Kloet served as part of the Phoenix program, a joint Vietnamese-American effort to neutralize the Viet Cong and communists at a local level. Also during his time with the Phoenix program, Kloet took part in the NVA's 1972 Easter Offensive, which occurred in a neighboring province.
- Date Created:
- 2011-02-24T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Grand Valley State University. University Libraries
- Collection:
- Veterans History Project (U.S.)
- Notes:
- Philip Palmer was born on May 23, 1933 in Lansing, Michigan. After high school he joined the Naval Reserve Officers' Training Corps and studied at the University of Wisconsin, receiving training aboard the USS Roanoke, USS William R Rush, and at Little Creek, Virginia and Naval Air Station Corpus Christi, Texas. He graduated and was commissioned in 1955 with a degree in chemical engineering and a degree in naval science. He served aboard the USS Strickland and the USS Hissem and served as a Navy ROTC instructor at the University of Michigan. He served aboard the USS Meadowlark during the Bay of Pigs invasion. He studied at the US Naval Postgraduate School and at Ohio State University and received nuclear reactor training in Bainbridge, Maryland and Idaho Falls, Idaho. He served aboard the USS Enterprise during the Vietnam War from 1966-1968, afterwards being assigned to the Office of Naval Research. In 1971 he reported for duty at Naval Magazine Subic in Subic Bay, Philippines and served there until 1974 when he was reassigned to the Naval Surface Warfare Center in Potomac, Maryland. He then served at Naval Sea Systems Command in Washington D.C. and then at Naval Weapons Station Earle, New Jersey. His final assignment was at the Applied Physics Laboratory at John Hopkins University and he retired from that in 1984.
- Date Created:
- 2015-01-22T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Grand Valley State University. University Libraries
- Collection:
- Veterans History Project (U.S.)
- Notes:
- William Womer, born in 1941 in Niles Michigan, served in the U.S. Army for 26.5 years. During his service, William was stationed in both Germany as well as in Vietnam during the Tet Offensive in 1968 where he organized ambushes on the Ho Chi Minh Trail. William had the honor of being selected as the 4th Army NCO of the year and spent the later part of his service stateside training solders.
- Date Created:
- 2011-11-07T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Grand Valley State University. University Libraries
- Collection:
- Veterans History Project (U.S.)
- Notes:
- Pete Rowe, born in Abilene Texas in 1942, served in the U.S. Air Force from 1964-1986 as an intelligence officer. Pete began his service in the ROTC program. After being commissioned, Pete was sent to the Philippines where he served over an intelligence team that intercepted signals from South and Southwest China. In 1968, Pete was sent to Vietnam where he worked interrogating captured North Vietnamese's soldiers during the Vietnam War. After leaving the country in 1969, Pete began working in the Domestic Contact Position (DCP) where he interviewed individuals who commonly interacted with and traveled outside of the country in order to gain intelligence. In 1974, he began working as an assistant professor of aerospace engineering at California State University Fresno in the ROTC program.
- Date Created:
- 2012-09-20T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Grand Valley State University. University Libraries
- Collection:
- Veterans History Project (U.S.)
- Notes:
- Don Chaffee was born in Detroit, Michigan in 1939 and grew up in Birmingham, Michigan. He attended Middlebury College and completed the Army ROTC program there, graduating in 1960 and taking his commission. He trained as a supply officer at Fort Lee, Virginia, and went to South Korea in 1961. He served first in a headquarters unit as a quartermaster, and then went to the 1st Cavalry Division along the DMZ. He served the rest of his enlistment at Ft. Devens, Massachusetts. He left the service in 1965 rather than re-enlist in part because he did not want to go to Vietnam, but while in graduate school in 1966, he volunteered for a State Department program that sent volunteers to Vietnam as aid workers, and spent several months in Song Be Province.
- Date Created:
- 2014-11-07T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Grand Valley State University. University Libraries
- Collection:
- Veterans History Project (U.S.)
- Notes:
- Carol Gilbert is the wife of U.S. Army/Vietnam War veteran Freddie Gilbert. She was born in 1950 in Nuremberg, Germany to a military family and would move back to the U.S. in her childhood. She met Freddie when they were in high school and were married after they graduated. Through his deployment to Vietnam and his military career afterwards she remained supportive and stood by him through the emotional conflicts that persisted due to the war.
- Date Created:
- 2013-10-09T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Grand Valley State University. University Libraries
- Collection:
- Veterans History Project (U.S.)
- Notes:
- Bill Alverson was born in 1929 in Olympia, Washington and grew up there. He completed ROTC training in college and was commissioned in the Army in 1951. He went to Japan in January, 1952 and trained for service in Korea. He served as a platoon leader in E Company, 15th Regiment, 3rd Infantry Division in Korea during the last year of the war. He left Korea on May 1, 1953 and began a career in the Army serving at Fort Lewis, Washington, Fort Benning, Georgia, and completing paratrooper training, being a trainer for the ROTC at Washington State University, and completing Army Ranger School in the fall of 1960. He served in Germany during the time of the Berlin Wall and Cuban Missile crises and studied at the Command General Staff College in Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. In 1965 he volunteered to go to Vietnam and was sent over in January 1966 to be an Army Ranger advisor for the South Vietnamese Rangers in Pleiku, South Vietnam. He helped carry out raids against the Viet Cong during his time there. After his deployment to Vietnam he returned to the United States and served at the Command General Staff College and at Fort Bragg, North Carolina helping train Special Forces. In 1972 he was redeployed to Vietnam and arrived there in August 1972. He was assigned to the Army Airbase near Can Tho in the Mekong Delta commanding the Air Cavalry Squadron and South Vietnamese Division there. The second tour ended in March 1973. He returned to the U.S. and served as an ROTC instructor at Idaho State University until his retirement in 1978 retiring with the rank of colonel.
- Date Created:
- 2014-10-02T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Grand Valley State University. University Libraries
- Collection:
- Veterans History Project (U.S.)
- Notes:
- Harriet Sturim was born in the Bronx, New York City, New York in 1943 to German immigrants that had fled the Nazi persecution of Jewish citizens in the 1930s. She met her husband, Rick Sturim, in a Jewish youth group as teenagers and reconnected while in college. They married on June 12, 1965 and moved to Chanute Air Force Base, Illinois the next day (where Rick was receiving Aircraft Maintenance Training). She moved to Ramey Air Force Base, Puerto Rico with Rick and worked at the Department of Defense school as a speech therapist and was part of the Wives' Club (extension of the Officers' Club). They stayed at Ramey Air Force Base until August 1968 and then moved to Kincheloe Air Force Base in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan where she continued to do activities with other officers' wives. Rick was discharged in 1969 and they eventually moved to Grand Rapids, Michigan in 1977. She has been involved with numerous veterans' organizations in the Grand Rapids area including the Cost of Freedom Tribute (Vietnam War memorial movement), the Grand Rapids Home for Veterans, the Veterans' Affairs Clinic in Wyoming, Michigan, and the "No Veteran Dies Alone" program at the Grand Rapids Home for Veterans.
- Date Created:
- 2015-07-09T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Grand Valley State University. University Libraries
- Collection:
- Veterans History Project (U.S.)
- Notes:
- Dale Krueger served in the U.S. Army from 1971-1974 in the Vietnam War. He also served in Iraq at a check point as well as in other countries such as Panama.
- Date Created:
- 2010-06-03T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Grand Valley State University. University Libraries
- Collection:
- Veterans History Project (U.S.)
- « Previous
- Next »
- 1
- 2
- 3